Whooping Cough (Pertussis) - Home Treatment

Home Treatment

If your child has whooping cough, the coughing spells can be frightening. You may be able to help manage the symptoms by:

• Creating a quiet, calm, restful environment. Keeping stimulation to a minimum can help reduce the number of coughing spells.
• Controlling possible triggers of a coughing episode, such as smoke, dust, sudden noises or lights, or changes in temperature.
• Giving your child frequent, small sips of fluids and nutritious foods to provide needed energy that coughing depletes.
• Using a cool-mist humidifier in your child's room. But watch closely to see its effect; sometimes humidity makes coughing spells worse, in which case it should be avoided. Dry, hot, or polluted air may make coughing spells worse.

Frequent hand-washing is important to help prevent the spread of infection. Keep children away from people who have a severe cough, especially if it is possibly related to whooping cough.

Immunizations are critical to preventing diseases such as whooping cough from becoming widespread (epidemic) problems. Children start getting their immunizations against pertussis(What is a PDF document?) at age 2 months. A total of 5 injections are given at different times until age 4 to 6 years. During childhood, the pertussis vaccine is given along with the vaccines for diphtheria and tetanus. These vaccines are all given in a single injection known as DTaP. Since the pertussis vaccine (as well as diphtheria and tetanus vaccines) gradually lose effectiveness, getting a booster shot of tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) vaccine(What is a PDF document?) is important for continued protection. This shot is usually given between 11 to 12 years of age. Adults 19 to 64 years of age who never had a Tdap shot should have one Tdap shot in place of a Td (tetanus and diphtheria) shot. (Booster shots for whooping cough have only recently become available for people age 7 and older.) For more information, see the topic Immunizations.